When in Rome
by OliviaLovesFitz8
Summary: Sometimes leaving your comfort zone will bring you the most comfort in unexpected ways. When two strangers meet in a foreign land, sparks fly in unimaginable ways.
1. Chapter 1

_You miss the feeling when you step outside_

_And then your mind comes all untied_

_And then you open up your eyes_

_And you don't feel lonely_

_And it feels bad now but it's gonna get better_

_Someday_

**_Almost Everything – Wakey Wakey_**

* * *

Olivia Pope stretched her legs as the pilot announced they were beginning their descent into the city. She stretched again before putting the bed like seat back in a normal position and handed over her trash to the attendant walking the aisle. Olivia followed instructions and lifted the window shade and squinted as the sun shone brightly outside. She reached for her bag and grabbed one of her hydrating cleansing wipes she'd packed and refreshed her face, neck and chest already feeling better. After searching through her bag for her moisturizer she applied it accordingly before putting her bag back under the seat.

"Ma'am can you put your seatbelt on?"

"It is." Olivia answered lifting her wrap sweater for the woman to see.

She walked away and Olivia sighed hoping that it didn't take long to get through customs and baggage claim. Switching time zones was supposed to throw her off but her head was beginning to pound and she couldn't wait to get settled into her hotel room. Olivia closed her eyes as they began to get closer to the runway. Olivia wasn't the best flyer but refused to let an eight hour flight deter her. She held on tightly to the arm rest next to her and braced herself as the wheels hit the concrete and the airplane began to slow down and tax to their gate.

The seatbelt sign was off and she could faintly hear the class behind her begin moving about and gather their things. Olivia placed her bag on her lap and swapped out her tennis shoes for the beaded sandals she'd packed her in large purse before checking her appearance in a compact mirror. She grabbed her bag before stepping off the plane and breathing in the crisp air that was so different than back home.

This was going to be good for her. She could feel it.

* * *

Fitzgerald Grant was almost out of breath as he jogged to baggage claim through the busy airport. He didn't expect Saturday afternoon to bring such a crowd of travelers but what did he really know? He hoped that is bag would already be there after the long process through customs and followed the signs to carousel two. No bags were in sight so Fitz stood back and did one of his favorite things, people watch. There were all sorts of people going in and out of the sliding doors, long lines for the public transportation, children crying, children running, random guys, random girls, same sex couples, interracial couples, old people, young people and everything in between. It was quite overwhelming to just look at everyone so Fitz diverted his attention to the notes app on his phone. His sister had written out what train he was supposed to ride to his hotel knowing he'd prefer to wing it. If he got lost, then he'd get lost. He wasn't a big planner and just went as he pleased.

Fitz's attention was brought to the carousel to the left as people began to reach for suitcases and duffel bags on the tram. His eyes landed on a short woman that began following after a bag like she was connected to it. No one seemed to move in time for her to grab at the sleek black suitcase yet she continued to follow it only to miss it every time. Seeing that his tram had yet to begin moving, Fitz jogged over to where the woman was and moved a few feet in front of her before grabbing the suitcase from the belt.

"Oh umm …."

"Here you go. I saw you were having some trouble with this."

She sent a grateful half smile to him before grabbing the handle and checking to make sure it was actually hers. Fitz immediately noticed how beautiful she was and wished he hadn't had to hand the bag over so soon.

"Thank you.. umm..this is it… I'm gonna go."

Fitz smiled wishing she had another bag just so he'd have more time to spend with her but she made her way towards the exit without another word. He watched her leave through the sliding doors and pretended to knock himself in the head several times as he moved back to his own conveyer belt.

"Stupid, stupid. She was right in front of you Fitz, and American as fuck yet you freeze up and let her get away. Good one."

The second he had his large duffel bag in hand, he made his way to the never-ending transportation line and hoped it wouldn't take forever. His stomach was growling and he knew his hotel was a good forty five minutes away. Fitz opened his phone and sent the obligatory 'I'm not dead, I'm safe' text to his parents and friends and checked his missed texts until he was up and in line.

"Hello, where are you headed today?"

Fitz grinned at her English accent not being able to help himself.

"Heading to Greenwich today and I think the best way is by train?"

"That's correct, the shuttle right outside this door will take you to the next terminal and the escalators there will take you to the underground train into Greenwich. One way?"

"Yes please. One way to Greenwich."

* * *

Olivia slid her keycard through the door slot and pulled her suitcase into the room behind her. It was small but colorful, clean and perfect for an overnight stay. She slid the keycard into the slot at the door and the electricity in the room immediately powered on. The heavy door closed and Olivia dropped her purse on the bed and peered into the bathroom. She noticed the small toilet and chuckled before moving to check out the rest of the room. She noticed the European outlets immediately and mentally pictured where she packed her adapter in her bag. Olivia heard her email go off and dug into her purse for her phone and opened her email.

"Ms. Pope, we hope your arrival in London went without a hitch. Your tour leader for the Great Britain tour is Mike. The bus will arrive at 7:00 am outside of the hotel. Please have checked out of your room and have your belongings packed and ready. We look forward to seeing you soon!"

Olivia immediately set her alarm for five-thirty the next morning before tossing her phone onto the bed. She moved to the window and smiled at the view she had of the city.

Greenwich was beautiful.

* * *

**Yea I know, why am I starting a new story? Lol Well Love and Freedom is coming soon- don't worry! But I just came from a 12 day trip to Ireland and the UK. The experience was so incredible and a friend told me I should write my trip with Olitz in mind. So that's what I'm doing! Hope you enjoy!**


	2. Chapter 2

Fitz dropped his bag by the elevator and jogged over to the breakfast area and grab a few things. He usually ate just about anything but he was running behind and needed to get out to the bus. He loaded a napkin with some bread and stacked a few pieces of suspicious looking bacon inside and headed back to the elevator. He wolfed the food down in a couple of bites and took the stairs two at a time before going out to the bus.

"Hi… thanks man." He greeted the bus driver who took his bag before he hurried on the bus.

"Here's the last one we're waiting for. Welcome aboard, take an empty seat and we are hitting the road." The tour leader spoke loudly over the bus intercom.

Fitz carried his backpack in front of him and moved quickly down the aisle until he found a seat towards the back of the bus. He found an aisle seat next to a guy and sat down w his bag on his lap.

Two ladies were in the seat across from him and after feeling their eyes on him for a few moments, he glanced over and waved at them. The one on the aisle looked to reach her hand out to introduce herself when the loud speaker started again.

"Gooood Morning everyone! Welcome to Ahoy Travel's Tour of the beautiful Great Britain, are you guys excited to be here?"

He encouraged cheers from the patrons and laughed before continuing. He spoke about some of the rules of riding on the 'coach' including not having hot food on the bus due to smells spreading and messes that the driver would ultimately responsible for. He began to introduce himself and the company, sharing how long he'd been working there and what they could all expect from the tour.

"We will spend the majority of the day on the couch traveling to the cities and towns on the itinerary but along the way there will be many stops for photograph taking, bathroom breaks and lunch stops. Some of the towns we will do a walking tour of the historic features and you will also have time to explore on your own in certain towns. Each day I will pass around an itinerary for the day and you can take a photo of it and keep passing until it returns to the front. As I said I'm Mike Vernon and I will be your tour guide, I am from Scotland and enjoy working with Ahoy Travel for about twelve years now and it's been incredible to see the additions in the past two to three years or so and even more recently. Our first stop this morning will be in about one hours time, about forty-five miles from Cambridge where we will spend the first part of our morning. So at this as we set off it's tradition that we go around and introduce ourselves. We will be spending the next seven days with each other so it's good to know who we've got amongst us. So tell us your name, what you do and what brought you on the tour. Oh and also if you've toured with us before. Now the first few rows of you are lucky but the microphone won't reach that far so the rest of you will come up once at a time. Let start."

* * *

Olivia smiled at the ten year old that took control of the microphone and introduced his family. He was clearly excited to be on the trip and Olivia thought about what she'd say once he was finished. When he was done, Olivia stood up and held on to the seats as she moved towards the front of the bus and took hold of the microphone.

"Hi my name is Olivia. I'm a journalist back home and decided I needed a vacation so here I am. I've never been on a tour before but looking forward to it."

She went back to her seat and the row across from her began to make their way to the front for introductions.

* * *

Fitz sat up straight in his seat ignoring the women to his right. There was no denying it was her. Seeing the same woman he'd helped at the airport yesterday on his tour bus made this trip even better for Fitz. Most people were sharing about who they were traveling with but Olivia hadn't mentioned being with anyone on the trip. Fitz's mind remained focus on counting the number of rows between him and Olivia when suddenly it was his turn to go up.

Fitz stood at the front of the bus and instantly focused on Olivia who was peering out of the window.

"Hi everyone my name is Fitzgerald and I'm a physical therapist by day but spend a lot of time behind a lens. Photography is a big passion of mine so I apologize if it feels like I'm sticking my camera in your face, I just can't pass up a good view."

His eyes finally locked eyes with Olivia's and he could tell that she recognized him from the day before. He sent her a smile and she looked away quickly, focusing her attention on the passing scenery outside.

"I uh, I've never been on a tour before. I've actually never been out of the country before and I'm on this trip because I'm ready to find something that changes my life."

Olivia caught eyes with him at his words before he went to sit back down.

* * *

Olivia swore she could feel him near her when they got off the coach in Cambridge. During the first rest stop she all but stayed in the women's bathroom waiting for the line to died down before buying bottled water and going back to the coach the second she noticed the driver head outside. She could tell Fitzgerald wanted to speak with her but wasn't sure if she wanted that. They were going punting and there were 12 spaces on each punt and as soon as Olivia sat down, Fitz was climbing aboard an sitting directly across from her.

Olivia did her best to focus on the English man speaking to them about what they would be seeing but could feel his eyes on her. She was wearing sunglasses and a pair of shorts with a tank top and tennis shoes. She made sure she would be comfortable in anything she decided to wear this next week but also loved being fashionable.

"Hi"

The sound of his voice was unexpected and Olivia immediately glanced back at the man punting behind her as though she hadn't heard him. She brought her legs up near her body and watched as he stretched his long legs out on either side of her. She hadn't expected that and wrapped her arms around her knees before turning her body so that she was able to focus anywhere but in front of her.

Fitz could only chuckle at her actions because they were so blatant. She was actually ignoring him and didn't even know him. He didn't say anything else and focused on taking pictures of the historical area. He noticed Olivia pull out her phone minutes later and begin taking pictures and what he assumed to be videos. When the tour was over his plan was to follow her and pick her brain about her job. He'd worked with journalists before and was curious about the type of stories she covered. Instead he was cornered by the two women that were next to him on the bus.

"Fitzgerald right? Hey I'm Angela and this is Nia, we wanted to see if you wanted to walk around with us? Find that pub Mike was talking about?"

Fitz peered around them to see Olivia more than a few feet away and figured he'd have to come up with a different way to spend time with her later.

"Sure, lead the way."

Walking with the two women wasn't so bad but Fitz all but felt like a piece of meat. Angela was nice but almost too nice in a way that she wanted his approval and Nia was very straight forward in an embarrassing way. After just spending thirty minutes with them, Fitz knew that Angela was "getting her groove back" and finding herself in whatever means she could on the trip and Nia was along to make sure her friend didn't hold back. They wanted to explore the country together but knew a tour group would encourage them to not "wild out". Fitz mostly nodded along and kept them on track with the time and directions. He took pride in the photos he was taking and even agreed to snap a few of the friends with the promise of making sure they got them.

When it was time to head back to the coach, Fitz led the way through the cobblestone streets and took a detour so they could use the restroom before they left. Fitz dried his hands before walking towards the exit and was surprised to see Olivia walking out of the women's bathroom at the same time. He knew Angela and Nia would probably be looking for him when they were done but he couldn't pass up this opportunity.

"Hi."

Olivia glanced his way but didn't speak. She'd started walking towards the bus and he'd moved along with her without a second thought.

"I'm Fitz. Olivia right?"

Fitz had to purposely shorten his strides in order to not get to far ahead of her.

"I uh, you were at the airport yesterday and I helped you with your bag."

Fitz realized that she wasn't going to really respond to him. He moved along with her towards the meet up point and noticed the camera peeking out from the top of her bag.

"Is that a Cannon Rebel?"

That seemed to get her attention and Olivia glanced down at her bag for a second before focusing ahead again.

"No.. well it's the T7i."

"Nice, what lens are you using?"

"Forty millimeter."

"Good ole faithful pancake lens? Always good when traveling. I've got one of those and a seventeen to forty millimeter. It's going to capture some amazing things on tour. At least I hope."

Olivia finally let out a smile and agreed. "That's a little out of my expertise but I've used one a few times before."

"It's one of my first splurges." Fitz took the camera out of the bag on his shoulder and began showing Olivia some of his favorite things about it. "I call her M'lady and she's pretty perfect and hasn't let me down once."

"You might be setting yourself up for failure in the future."

"What do you mean?"

Olivia noticed people from their bus beginning to appear and all head in the same direction. She glanced behind her and knew that it was time for her to part ways with Fitz.

"Expecting a lady to be perfect is going to get you hurt in the end Fitz."

He watched her glance behind them one last time and followed her gaze to see Angela and Nia approaching fast and waving at him.

"I'll see you later."

"Fitzgerald where did you go? We were waiting for you at the bathroom for like ever!"

Nia seemed annoyed with him but he didn't really care. He hated that Olivia walked off as soon as she saw them approaching. He'd finally got her to say one word to him and it was over just as fast as it started.

"I just wanted to get back it wasn't personal."

"Well we forgive you."

They each flocked to his side effectively closing him in like a caged animal as they went back to the bus. He boarded the bus with hopes of connecting eyes with Olivia but she was wearing headphones and had her gaze fixed to the window.

Fitz took his seat feeling defeated and sighed when Nia began asking to see the pictures he'd take of them again.

* * *

Two cities, lunch, a gorgeous drive along the country side, dinner and ten miles later, Mike loudly interrupted the peaceful bus and began the announcements that the passengers were becoming used to.

"Alright everybody we are about ten minutes from our hotel for the night in the beautiful city of York. I will be passing back a clipboard with the room numbers listed. If you are in a room alone it's because you've purchased the single occupancy option through the company or you're one of the lucky odd number of single travelers that lucked out on their own room. Now you'll see your room number, memorize that number, and when you come into the hotel tell me your number to get your key. Do not go to the front desk because they will not have any of the keys. Please do not monopolize the clipboard because everyone needs to know their room as quickly as possible. Write it down if you need to.

Fitz failed at holding back his grin. He was excited about this whole lodging system because each day he'd know exactly which room Olivia was and hoped it was near his. He waited patiently and eyes the clipboard as it was being passed to each row. When it was with Nia and Angela he tried to glance over but wasn't able to see much due to the small font. He heard Angela mumble about going the elevators worked since they were on the second floor and he crossed his fingers that he wasn't near them. Fitz grabbed the clipboard quickly when it was pushed between him and the guy next to him, scanning the list for Olivia's name before his own

_106_

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End file.
